Telangana Gets Back 200 Medical Seats; Has 3 Months To Improve Facilities

Telangana got back the 200 seats cancelled earlier this year by MCI. Deputy Chief Minister and Medical and Health Minister Dr T Rajaiah confirmed this yesterday. “We have received an MCI (Medical Council of India) letter today giving 200 seats back to Telangana State”, he said. Of these, 100 seats will be filled in Rajiv Institute of Medical Sciences in Nizamabad, 50 in Kakatiya Medical College and the remaining 50 will be filled in Gandhi Medical College.

Sources in Medical Council of India (MCI) say MCI has agreed to restore 6,387 medical seats, across the country, in government colleges which were cancelled earlier this year. The action came after all affected state governments promised to upgrade infrastructure and comply fully with the Council’s guidelines.

MCI chairperson Jayshreeben Mehta said all the state governments have given an undertaking that they will comply with the guidelines in 3 months time.

“We have never disapproved any college for flimsy reasons. We are concerned with the mandatory requirements of MCI and that is faculty, hospital equipments, patients and teaching modalities,” Mehta told PTI.

According to officials, MCI gave its approval for reallocating seats on Saturday evening and conveyed it to the Centre which then informed the respective state governments.

The approval comes in the backdrop of Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan asking the the Council to urgently take a call on compliance reports filed by colleges.

In a letter to the MCI chairperson, he had also criticized the Council for failing to review the compliance reports of several government medical colleges within a set time-frame, as in the long term it would lead to acute shortage of qualified doctors.

“We also want more doctors, but then the quality of doctors also matters. We need to provide proper training and a good environment to them,” Mehta said on the issue.